"Lightning never strikes twice" (1846)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg again made his "lightning vs. terrorism" argument
(to NBC's Brian Williams), this time about lightning striking twice:
...
...

_http://mediamatters.org/items/200706140001_
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200706140001)
BLOOMBERG: Anything is possible, but the odds are that you will get struck
by lightning many times before a terrorist would ever hurt you, and you can't
worry about it. You got to leave that to the  professionals.
...
...
I've written about this elsewhere. For the past forty years, lightning has
killed about three people per year in New York State. To just equal the deaths
on 9-11, you'd have to have lightning throughout New York State for the next
800  years. (That would assume no other terrorist attack in 800 years.)
...
The odds of lightning hitting a person twice are almost zero. However, the
odds that a major American city will be attacked by nuclear terrorism, for
example, are surely much greater than zero. The fact that it hasn't happened
doesn't mean the odds are zero, as Bloomberg tells you. But enough of  that.
...
The phrase "lightning never strikes twice" is somewhat deceiving. Lightning
often strikes twice, if it's striking a good target. For example, New York
City's Empire State Building has been hit many times by lightning. The ESB  is
designed to be NYC's lightning rod, and it's struck by lightning 100  times a
year.
...
The Yale Book of Quotations traces "lightning never strikes twice" to  1855.
...
...

7 August 1846, Morning News (CT)[GenealogyBank], pg. 2:
...dine at the Ocean House (those who fear a poor dinner this time must
remember that lightning never strikes twice in the same place--and they may be
sure of good fare now)--...



************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org